Conference USA Tournament Pairings Released

The wildest regular season race in Conference USA history came down to the final day and a couple of familiar names ended up sharing the regular season title. For the second time in three years, Rice and Southern Miss are co-champions of Conference USA, both finishing with 15-9 league records. The Owls secured a share of their seventh C-USA regular season crown in eight years with a series sweep of Marshall at home. Five miles away, Southern Miss posted a 6-5 win Saturday at Houston to gain a share of the crown. Rice will be the No.1 seed at the C-USA Championship at Reckling Park in Houston based on a two-games-to-one series victory at Southern Miss on the opening weekend of league play.

For Rice (37-17), it marks the 18th consecutive season that the Owls have won a conference regular season or tournament championship, dating back to 1995, the final year of the Southwest Conference. For Southern Miss (28-25) it marks its third C-USA regular season crown since 2003.

The 2013 Conference USA Championship will feature the top eight teams in regular-season league play. Those eight will be split into two four-team pools (or pods), with the winner of each pod playing in a single championship game. Teams are assigned pods based on seed, which are determined by the order of finish in regular-season conference play.

Each team is guaranteed to play three games. Teams in each pod will play all three other teams in its pod. The team with the best composite record in each pod advances to the championship game. Two-way ties in a pod will be broken by head-to-head play. In the case of a three-way tie, the highest seed will advance.

Game times are 11 a.m., 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday with the championship game slated for 1 p.m. on Sunday afternoon. The championship game will be nationally-televised by CBS Sports Network.

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